Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles Were the Royal Family’s Biggest Travel Spenders in 2018
We always knew we could count on wine-loving and Aston-Martin-driving Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles to show us how it's really done...
The Sovereign Grant 2019, the royal family's financial report about how they spend money and where it goes, was released today. According to the report, the two royals who ball out the most while jet-setting?
You guessed it: The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Should we grab some champagne to toast?
In total, the royal family spent nearly £4.6 million (or roughly $5.87 million) on travel during the UK fiscal year, which ended in March. Since the British taxpayers foot the bill for travel on official royal visits, the report discloses the cost of any trip the royal family takes that is more than £15,000, or about $18,000.
The royal couple who spent the most, though, was Charles and Camilla. In March, the two embarked on their royal tour of the Caribbean, which cost over half a million dollars (!!!). And we thought our recent European rendezvous was expensive...
The trip, to be fair, included a historic visit to Cuba and more than 50 engagements on 10 different islands. It cost £416,576, aka roughly $530,000.
And their flair for "going big or going home" doesn't stop there. The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall also took the second and third most expensive trips of this financial year.
Prince Charles and Camilla's royal tour of Africa, which included Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria, last fall cost £216,312 ($275,000), while the royal couple's official visit to France and Greece last May cost £159,820 ($200,000).
In comparison, Meghan and Harry's massive tour of Oceania last fall, which saw the Sussexes attend over 70 different royal engagements in four countries over 15 days (and let's not forget the 42 outfit changes) cost only about $100,000. (Yes, we said only.) To be fair, though, since Australia and New Zealand are commonwealth realms, they paid for a significant portion of the expenses of that royal tour themselves. Sorry, guys.
The biggest budget travelers (we can't help ourselves...): Prince William and Kate Middleton. The Duke of Cambridge's official trip to the Middle East, which included visits to Jordan, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, amounted to a cool $94,000. Kate and William's joint visit to Northern Ireland cost about $30,000.
Move over, the Points Guy. We obviously have a thing or two to learn from Kate and William...
